Break All Rules, But Know Them Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

It's not enough to just begin,
Still, good to start than not at all,
To have tried and failed is no sin.

Good things oft get born from no good,
A poor run's better than no run,
Fine if it first looks childlike crude.

Let a poet be howso great,
Poor packaging more than prevail,
Best of bards have passed thru this gate.

Sores grown whilst grooming greatly serve
Love of labour for your own eye—
It serves as a good learning curve.

To start with it helps to have heft—
A good theme: Love, death, destiny,
Fabric's woven with warp and weft.

Limerick, sure, it's often cool,
It need no one's leg needless pull,
But perilous is longish lull.

Beware still, heftier the theme,
Deeper dwell devils of details,
From depths of bottom rises cream.

Ye need no nuts and bolts explain,
Capture more heart's say than of head,
Few readers may love labour pain.

Poetic forms, mere crutching aid,
It pays to walk with and without,
Discard soon these shackles nigh dead.

A poet oft paints an image
That walks miles, words while strut on stage,
And weaken with passage of age.

A poet has a heart— his own,
And it aches quite unlike any,
Head still has a contending bone.

A poem's known by title head,
Or lost is like a nameless child,
No Shakespeare art thou I'm afraid.

A poem's a child of your pen,
And on a blank paper you paint,
Muse has li'le use— nine out of ten.

To pen, any place is as good,
If thoughts fall in frame what use mood?
Still what helps is some solitude.

Alliteration, goodly aid,
Easy, can it be overdone,
Let it not too much weigh on head.

Like oasis looks a good line
In a poem of a long spell,
The rest need be no salty brine.

Kiss no goodbye to private shame,
Nor keep worst of demons off page,
Keep a keen pen ‘pon honest frame.

Let your babes be beamed to wide world,
It pays to put your pen to test,
Cage is no place for a free bird.

Poetic lines easy do flow,
But put your peas in perfect pod,
Slog, nor clog, no shame going slow.

Try be good ere becoming great,
Yet, too much kills a poem's heart,
And penmanship's no better bet.

Promenade not on a paved way,
It's better to explore new ways,
And helps nowhere too long to stay.

And last, on no tips lose your sleep,
What suits let be your patent style,
Plough, plough, O best of crops to reap.
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Here are some tips to turn out good poetic lines, each stanza a Sicilian tersest. Like beauty tips poetic tips too do not always work. Many represent the mistakes I committed and even do so now. But poets are ruled by hearts, and heart is prone to make mistakes. In fact it does not look kindly to the tips turned out by the head. And so the tip of all tips is: break all rules if you must.
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Reflections | 01.10.11 |
Old caption: Poetic tips